Linda Holzer
- Professor of Piano
- Expertise
Pianist Linda Holzer is a professor of music at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. An active soloist and chamber musician, Dr. Holzer has been heard in concert in 30 states, including at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and New York Public Radio Station WNYC-FM, as well as abroad in Vienna, Austria; Maribor, Slovenia; Melbourne, Australia, at Qingdao University in mainland China, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, at the Beethoven Saal in Vienna, and at the Palffy Palace in Bratislava, Slovakia. An advocate for contemporary music, by American composers such as Gwyneth Walker, John Steinmetz, William Bolcom, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Tobias Picker, and Missy Mazzoli, her concert recordings have been broadcast internationally. She is a respected scholar known for her advocacy of the music of pioneering African American composer Florence Price. She gave the Arkansas premiere of a piano concerto by pioneering African American composer William Grant Still.
A native of Chicago, she holds degrees in piano performance from Northwestern University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Florida State University. She served as chair of the Committee on the Pedagogy Student for the 2007 and 2009 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago coordinating and presenting at pre-conference seminars, and is an active member of the Network of Music Career Development Officers (NETMCDO).
She is a founding member of the duo Mariposa with Arkansas Symphony violinist Sandra McDonald. She also enjoys writing, and is the author of articles published in Piano & Keyboard, Clavier, American Music Teacher, and Piano Pedagogy Forum that have received numerous citations. In April 2019, Dr. Holzer received the Faculty Excellence Award in Professional Service for the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences. In April 2017, Dr. Holzer received the Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching for the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences at UA Little Rock. In 2004, she received the “Article of the Year” award from American Music Teacher magazine for her article on entrepreneurship and career guidance for music majors.
Dr. Holzer was formerly an artist-in-residence with the North Carolina Visiting Artist Program for four seasons. She is currently on the “Arts on Tour” roster for the Arkansas Arts Council. She is a first prize-winner of the Farwell Music Competition of Chicago, and the MTNA Wurlitzer Collegiate Artist Award for the state of North Carolina. She held a University Fellowship at Florida State University, and won the Pick Piano Award at Northwestern University. She is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda-National Music Honor Society.